The field for the 2009 Nanjing Pearl Spring Grand Slam tournament is now complete. Bu Xiangzhi has been replaced by Wang Yue despite his respectable even score in last year's edition. But barring shocking developments, nobody will be paying much attention to anyone other than world champ Anand, world #1 Topalov, and world #3 wunderkind Magnus Carlsen. The rest of the field will be battling to get a share of the spotlight: Radjabov, Jakovenko, and Wang Yue. Topalov dominated last year's event. Start date is September 27, hard on the heels of the Bilbao Grand Slam final. Official site here.
Update: Hours after I posted this, Anand and Topalov disappeared from the Pearl Spring website and were replaced with "to be determined"! Maybe the organizers' announcements got ahead of their contracts?
Only one of the six is rated below 2750 (and he's just barely under). Stronger tourney than M-Tel or Dortmund. Kudos to Chinese chess for pulling it together.
Nice field. Why hasn't Jakovenko been getting more invitations?
"Barring shocking developments ..." - there may be one, for the moment it's a rumor:
'Deep Mikey' posted the following on Chessvibes (28June 10:18PM European time):
"The latest news we - the Chess Tigers - received from the World Champion directly: Anand will not play in Nanjing!"
When I asked whether Anand gave reasons, the answer was a simple "Yes... ,:)".
ChessTigers are the organizers of the Mainz rapid event, who have close connections to Anand. And it is indirecty confirmed by Vishy himself: in an interview posted on Chessbase ( http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5538 ) he mentions Tal Memorial (in November) and Corus (January 2010) as his next rated events.
However, it appears that the Nanjing organizers do not know yet !!??
On Jakovenko: Indeed supertournament invitations were 'overdue' for him. Maybe he had been ignored because organizers don't want too many Russian/ex-Soviet players? But now it seems he has been discovered, as he will also play Dortmund.
By comparison, similar invitations are merely 'due' for Nakamura (and others mentioned in a parallel thread)!?
Has English evolved so much that "hard on the heels" is a vaild expression, or something else´s going on here?
This is gonna be soooo boring, especially with Wang Yue's sleepkriegs.
I don't understand why they don't throw in all the 2650+ locals into it like a mini Corus.
More interestig field: The invited tops plus promising locals Ni, Bu, Wang Yue, Wang Hao, Li Chao, Hou Yifan in a ten-player field.
Btw, has anyone else noticed Wang Yue's reputation as a Kramnik-light, a "Mr. -1"? Corus -1, Mtel -1, Linares -1, IIRC.
Come to think of it, there is a bit of viewer interest: How does Wang Yue play with proper sleep? Maybe with a bit more energy?
After all, he has in Seinfeld's innfamous words, "Home Bed Advantage".
Besides being "just another Soviet", Jakovenko is a late-bloomer (b. 1983) who didn't really shine until age 24. That's how he snuck up on the chess world (now #5 overall on the July 2009 list.)
It was quite a few years ago i read someone (I think Kramnik or Grischuk) saying Jakovenko was a really strong player, especially in endings. Maybe that views weren't as wrong as they seemed at that time. I think Wang Yue is quite strong, but not a top player (at the time of writing). He got quite good results in a few Grand Prix tournaments but he's scoring much worse recently. The other players have adapted to him or he can't keep with the training and novelties rhythm the elite has, whatever the reason it's nice to have many tournaments so players can prove how strong they are continously.
This will be the strongest ever tournament
I was looking on the Live Ratings list at all the players born in 1983. Interesting mix of prodogies (Ponomariov, Grischuk, Bacrot) and relative late-bloomers like Jakovenko and Dominguez. Right now, it seems like the late-bloomers might be primed for the stronger careers.
The website only confirms 4 of the participants.
http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/www/chess_pk/yindex.htm
Carlsen, Wang Yue, Jakovenko and Radjabov.
Yeah, Anand and Topalov were both removed. Curious.
"Yeah, Anand and Topalov were both removed. Curious."
They were afraid of playing each other.
No, their match is scheduled for September this year, and noone knows yet ... . And what happens if Carlsen, Jakovenko and Radjabov are also removed from the list? Does that mean Wang Yue is already qualified for Bilbao 2010?
He'll probably play every event up until Bilbao 2010, so it makes sense.
Thomas - Check your facts. The Anand-Topalov match is not schedule for this year. April 2010 - http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/3965-anand-topalov-match-bidding-procedure
Topalov is playing in Bilbao the same month so maybe not that strange if he will avoid Nanjing, the question is who will play instead of Anand and Topalov, and if the organisers will be happy with that.
I read that in the first Nanjing one of the organisers wanted Steinitz and Fischer and was disappointed when it was impossible, maybe they can get them this time instead :)
"I read that in the first Nanjing one of the organisers wanted Steinitz and Fischer and was disappointed when it was impossible"
Jeez, this modern cynicism. With a "can-do" attitude anything is possible.
So is this gunjumping on Mig's part or isn't it?
Only if you mean putting up what the organizers announced! They have removed Anand and Topalov in the last 24 hours. Perhaps they weren't signed yet? Will try to find out what's up.
In any case, Mig wasn´t the only one referring to ´wrong´ (or outdated) information by the Nanjing organizers - at least Chessvibes and Chessdom had done the same .... .
That being said, I am curious what is really going on - first rumors about Anand not playing (see my first post in this thread), then both Anand and Topalov removed from the field.
I hope it's not organizational conflicts. Danailov has taken over quite a bit of top-level chess organizing in recent years and he's still Topalov's guy. With Topalov facing Anand in a WCh match next year it might get a little awkward at times and Vishy hates infighting.
You are like the Agatha Christie of chess dude , now i need to know what the xxxx is happening.
Im a little disapointed about Wan Yue , i was expecting to see other chinesse player.
Anyone but him , in fact.
Wang Yue was invited because he was the highest rated Chinese player on the July 09 Fide rating list.
Yea but i saw him a lot lately , i just wanted to check on others , i wouldnt mind if they include 2 chinesse players instead of one.
Lékó seems to be replacing Anand. http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/www/chess_pk/2009/en/
You see, he's still everywhere, Manu :) Danailov and others want to be able to boast about the strength of their tournaments, so rating points trump perceived entertainment value.
Well , they already have so much pepper on that event that a little tofu wont change things that much.
And Topalov seems to be replaced by ... Topalov? His picture is back on the tournament webpage.
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